After Samsung launched its 5G in February, South Korea will become the first country to commercially launch fifth-generation (5G) services on Friday.
South Korea will roll out the latest wireless technology with Samsung Electronics’ new 5G-enabled smartphone Galaxy S10.
With one of the world’s top smartphone penetration rates, South Korea is in a race with China, the United States and Japan to market 5G.
S.Korea hopes that the technology will spur breakthrough in fields such as smart cities and autonomous cars, and drive up its economic growth that slowed to a six-year low in 2018.
The technology can offer 20-times faster data speeds than 4G long-term evolution (LTE) networks and better support for artificial intelligence and virtual reality with low latency.
South Korean carriers have spent billions on campaigns marketing 5G and, on Wednesday, SK Telecom showed off K-pop stars and an Olympic gold medalist as its first 5G customers.
SK Telecom is working with its memory-chip making affiliate SK Hynix to build a highly digitized and connected factory powered by 5G technology, Ryu said.
Samsung was the first to unwrap a 5G phone in February when it unveiled the Galaxy S10 5G and a nearly $2,000 folding smartphone, putting the world’s top smartphone maker by volume in pole position in the 5G race.
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